CHANNEL 2 NEWS: EXCERPTS FROM COVERAGE ON THE
TAWANA BRAWLEY CASE (TV)
Summary
Excerpts from the Channel 2 News programs concerning the Tawana Brawley rape case, which was investigated in a series of special reports by reporter Mike Taibbi. The reports attempt to determine whether Brawley's allegations are true or false; the allegations are briefly summarized in the first excerpt. A report is introduced that aired May 4th on Channel 2, in which Taibbi and producer Anna Sims-Phillips went to the town of Newberg, NY, to investigate reports that witnesses had seen Brawley during the four-day period in which she was allegedly kidnapped. One anonymous boy asserts that he talked with Brawley at a party. The next excerpt deals with the public response to this broadcast; the Rev. Al Sharpton and C. Vernon Mason, attorney for the Brawley family, are among the black community leaders who attack the Channel 2 reports during a press conference. At the conference, a man named Gregory Fleming asserts that the anonymous boy was paid to lie about seeing Brawley at the party. In the subsequent excerpt, the news staff reassert the validity of their methods in obtaining the Brawley evidence. To further support the case that Brawley is not being truthful, Warren Greher, lawyer for Brawley's ex-boyfriend, speaks on behalf of his client and says Brawley may have visited her boyfriend in prison during the days of the alleged kidnapping. Roy Innis of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and David N. Dinkins offer their opinions of the case. In the final excerpt, "The Inside Story," Taibbi and Sims-Phillips interview Perry McKinnon, a former Sharpton aide, who is disillusioned by the type of media coverage that he says former colleagues Sharpton and Mason encourage. McKinnon volunteers his view of the Brawley case and the results of his own investigations into her story. Polygraph expert Victor Kaufman verifies McKinnon's story to be true as far as his polygraph test shows. Clips featuring Glenda and Tawana Brawley are included.
Details
- NETWORK: WCBS-TV
- DATE: April 30, 1988
- RUNNING TIME: 0:37:15
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:16157
- GENRE: News; Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: News; Black power; Blacks - Politics and suffrage; Blacks in the mass media; African-American Collection - News/Talk
- SERIES RUN: WCBS (New York, NY) - TV, 1988
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Anna Sims-Phillips … Producer
- Michele Marsh … Anchor
- Mike Schneider … Anchor
- Mike Taibbi … Reporter
- Glenda Brawley
- Tawana Brawley
- Todd Buxton
- David N. Dinkins
- Gregory Fleming
- Warren Greher
- Roy Innis
- Victor Kaufman
- C. Vernon Mason
- Perry McKinnon
- Al Sharpton … with others